Venezia

On Sunday night we met up with a friend of Ben's from school and his mom. Sebastiano and Ana Maria met us at a nice restaurant near Prato delle Valle. It was a good dinner with conversation in Italian, English and Spanish. They are from Venezuela, and have decided that with the unrest there that Seba should finish his education here. 

Monday morning we got up and got on a train for Venezia (Venice). We immediately got off of the beaten path and meandered through some neighborhoods. Venice again did not disappoint. I had heard that the smell can be bad in the summer from dirty canal water and that the tourists were unbearable, but I didn't find it smelly or nearly as congested as I expected. The biggest traffic jam we saw was a collection of 6-7 gondolas in one intersection.

We got on the vaporetto- which is the water bus system in Venice. It's a great way to see the Grand Canal. We took the vaporetto all the way to the outer island of Lido. We had a very nice lunch in the shade and then headed down the street to the beach. We chose to go to a private beach where we could rent an umbrella and some chairs. I was expecting a rocky beach, but it was sandy. The water felt like bath water and we all enjoyed cooling off a bit.

We made a mistake on the return and got on the vaporetto going the wrong way. After a 45 minute detour, we got off in St. Mark's square and braved the crowds to walk back through the city to the train station. We stopped along the way for a snack, but all in all had a great day in Venice. (When we got home Dave cooked pasta for dinner. We just got Barilla from the grocery store, but it tastes SO MUCH BETTER here!)